The county commission voted 11-2 to adopt a new 2016-17 budget plan Monday night.

The new $42.4 million spending plan, including a new $1.83 certified tax rate includes pay raises for most county employees.

The new pay scale will tie employees of the County Mayor, Trustee, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, Assessor of Property, Circuit Court Clerk, and Clerk and Master the elected official’s salaries, and includes step increases which will allow the employees to earn as much as 44 percent of their employer’s pay after eight years of service.

Of the 16 employees in those offices, two will receive a $961 raise in pay this year, two salaries will increase $1,058, one will get a $1,254 raise, three will get $1,906; six will get $2,265, one will get a raise of $5,206, and one will get $6,712 more salary. Because the employees’ salaries are now tied to the elected officials pay, the employees will get an automatic increase in pay every time the state grants a pay raise for the officials.

Some elected officials, however, do not care for the fact that the county mayor’s employees will earn more than other clerks because his salary is $10,000 per year more than the other officials.

While all of the seven elected officials listed above have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the plan, Sixth District County Commissioner Betty Atnip joined them in voicing concerns about the scale at Monday night’s meeting.

"I just want to go on record. It’s totally wrong," Atnip told her fellow commissioners. "I don’t get mine based on that, and I don’t know of any company that bases their raises on that. I’m totally disappointed in it."

"You hit it on the head. It’s not a company. It’s a government entity," Fourth District Commissioner and Budget Committee Chairman Wayne Cantrell replied.

"That’s right," Atnip retorted. "And it should be paid according to how someone works. Not by their boss’s. Your boss has nothing to do with the way you work."

"This is not the only county that does that," Cantrell returned.

"It’s not right for DeKalb County either," Atnip shot back.

"That’s your opinion," said Cantrell.

"And it’s very obvious how you stand," Atnip said.

"The people made a big change two years ago in these seats with a big turnover because they were tired of the way things were done up here," Atnip continued. "And they’re not getting any better in the two years that I have been on here. I just want the people to know that one person cannot do a whole lot with the attitudes that are here."

"The situation is, no matter what we would have done somebody is not going to be happy," Fifth District Commissioner Anita Puckett joined in. "I disagree with the percentile, but that’s not my committee. We have entrusted the budget committee to make that decision and bring it before this board, and we make the decision to pass it. I disagree with it but I trust my budget committee to make the decision for this governmental body. Therefore I’m probably going to pass this, because we’ve got to pass the budget so we can move on with our county government.

Commissioners Betty Atnip and Bradley Hendrix voted against the plan, with Hendrix saying that he was opposed to the $50,000 budgeted for a new soccer field at DCHS.

"I’ve gotten phone calls over the soccer field, the $50,000," Hendrix explained. "The school board hasn’t put in for the new girls softball field at the middle school. They haven’t put in for the high school football facilities. The training room and stuff like that. I don’t know what makes soccer more important than these other sports. On that I’m going to vote no on the budget."

The commission also set the new certified property tax rate at $1.83 per $100 of assessed value with a vote of 12-1, with Atnip again casting a no vote.

With the latest five-year reappraisal cycle showing a drop in property values in the county, the State Board of Equalization determined that the rate this year will increase from $1.78 to $1.83 per $100 of assessed value. This was done so that the tax rate will generate the same amount of revenue for the county as it did last year.

The County General fund will get 95 cents of the $1.83 tax rate, while schools will get 61 cents, debt service will receive 12 cents, the county highway department will get four cents, and 11 cents will go into the capital projects fund.

Also included in the budget are a new part time employee in the county clerk’s office, money for a new fire hall in the Four Seasons community, a $6,000 increase in the rescue squad’s budget, and $9,000 to make improvements to six county-owned ball fields.

There is $130,000 included in the budget for a new ambulance, and $600,000 was budgeted for the changeover from the current landfill to a solid waste transfer station. A new backhoe for the landfill was budgeted at $100,000, and a loader was budgeted at $150,000.

The landfill will still be used for a time after the new transfer station opens, but will be used for non-household solid waste. Household waste will be hauled to Smith County.